“I promise to inventory, stash on ravelry, organize into bins, and then use or trade/sell/gift all of my current stash by this time next year.”

OK, in retrospect, that was just a little unrealistic! But, none the less, I have made a good dent in my goals so far. I have been diligently stashing away on ravelry. I am proud to say that I think I am about 1/3 of the way there on the actually inventory aspect of this. I am loving the ravelry stash page because it allows me to see what I have without digging around for it, and… oh my goodness! It allows me to see how many yards I have to hook it to a pattern I want to make. YEAH!

So here’s how I’m doing:

Stash Stats as of July 2011

Inventory: 125 skeins/balls or cones out of 309 + 16 new items added since March 2011,leaving at least 200 more skeins to inventoryKnitting: I’ve knit up about 21 of these skeins since March 2011,and I have 254 skeins left to knit up to reach my second goal which was to have about 50 newer items in my stash by April 1, 2012.

Something to aspire to: … Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? …

My current “aspiration” is to complete a full length, fully fashioned, fully lined and tailored, cable knit coat. I had the idea more than a year ago I think, and the sheer length of knitting (not to mention the budget for the yarn) has made me put it off. As with many things, blog week seems to be inspiring me to action. Today I finally committed to a silhouette sketch and pulled together the samples for a final “review”. Here they are:

The buttons are a vintage find, I’ll be recycling a fur collar from an old coat, and the yarn is Knit Picks’ “Gloss HW” in the color “Admiral”. I had made the cable swatch into the “Cable Sampler Neck Wrap” back in the fall, but then never took another step toward making the actual coat. Part of the delay was that I didn’t feel comfortable with the sewing and construction that would sit under the knitted garment. Now, with my recent lining and sewing experience, I feel a bit more confident that I can actually pull it off. Wish me luck!

And now for something completely different – experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create.

As my “experiment” I decided to step back from the intense focus on knitting and designing and take the time today to share a little family history and philosophy with everyone. The women in my family have inspired, guided, and taught me many things – mostly “not knitting” things. So here they are, with a couple of lessons each. These women have been a part of the foundation for my creative life which I now focus on building better every day.

My Mom – “Every problem can be solved” and even better, there is always an “Elegant Solution”.

She is a physics professor, and a great one at that. Growing up she couldn’t help but teach us how to deal with the world through the lenses of math, physics, and teaching. Through games, puzzles and tons of craft, cooking and science projects, she was always patient and encouraging. She taught me that nothing is impossible because nearly everything you want to do can be broken down into smaller problems, solvable groups, and then fused into integrated elegant solutions. It didn’t matter if it was my geometry homework or a fine art painting, there was always a way to identify the goal, and reach it, in a smooth logical way. Her needle art was sewing. She could make anything we wanted growing up – from tiger costumes to prom dresses. It was always clear that smart, and even geeky, did not mean you couldn’t also be artistic and creative too. If fact she made us realize that each aspect made the other better. She taught me to sew, and also how to spot quality construction when shopping in a clothing store. Patterns were just another puzzle, and every garment can be judged by the elegance of it’s execution. In my creative work, I have used the lessons of patiently breaking things apart, and re-constructing them as I see them, hundreds of times. When I see something that looks complicated, it’s her “never say never” attitude that pops into my head and sets me off to figuring it out. One’s imagination is the only limit when you are re-assured that you have the tools in your mind to make a dream come true.

My Grandma – “ You can always learn something new – even if you’re 94” and “Handmade is no excuse for imperfection”

My Grandma was a “newfie” (from Newfoundland, Canada) with a more independent attitude that half the “feminists” I meet today. She believed in self reliance and that learning new skills was the path to taking care of yourself and never playing the victim. A numbers whiz to be sure, a working woman in “accounting” starting in 1914 at age 14, she expected good grades, good manners and great needlework from her grand-daughter. I was happy to comply. (Well, ok, my manners sometimes weren’t the best, but I tried.) She could remember what a big deal it was to get a light bulb in her house growing up, and at the same time jumped in with both feet to learn computer word processing when other younger folks didn’t even know how to use a computer at all. The sheer breadth of her experience leaves me in awe to this day. If you can think of a needle art, she probably did it at least once, and showed it to me at some point. She took up new ones every year in an endless quest to try everything. For her the needle arts were part of the foundation of being “well-educated” and doing them as well as your schoolwork was only logical. She hated the term “crafty” because to her it implied that whatever was made was somehow “less” than commercially made items – in her world your handmade item ought to be better. She did, in fact, teach me to knit, but she taught me oh so much more. Today I still hold myself to her high standards when I knit and sew, and she is the reason I keep learning, and learning, and learning!

My Granny didn’t live near us. We were in New England, she was down in South Carolina. Yet, somehow I always felt treasured and loved by her. You see, every year when I was a little girl, she made me a “Princess Dress”. They were beautiful, feminine and twirley dresses that fit me perfectly. Somehow measurements that were taken in the summer went off to her in the mail and then magically it was translated into a wonderful confection of a dress. To this day I don’t know how she did it. So, though I didn’t get to spend much time with her, she did make me understand how the act of making things can be a statement of love and affection, even when you’re miles away. And now, whenever I can’t get something to fit, I always have her example to follow – trust the measurements and the fit will follow. I still love a great fitting “princess dress” to this day – anyone have a wedding I can attend?

My “Aunt” Betty – “History can be beautiful” and “Everything has a story to tell”

My “Aunt” Betty (who is not really an aunt, but actually my step-grandmother) was another southerner, but she left a little different wisdom with me. She worked as an Interior Designer when I knew her growing up, and also had helped restore the Thomas Elfe House in Charleston, SC, with my Grandfather. Her art was needlepoint, and she also collected needlework from around the world. I was fortunate enough to spend some time with her one summer “interning” (not really, but I got to hang out in her studio). I don’t think she’ll ever know how much I took away from that one experience. I poured through the fabric books and explored all of the historical reproduction and antique furniture in the house and studio. She taught me to think about everything in my environment as decorative and worthy of artistic treatment. She also taught me through her example how things can become heirlooms, and how beautiful and rich history can be when viewed through the needlework, furnishings and interiors left behind. It all told a story. My Grandfather, was the consummate “story teller” in the family, but Betty was right behind him imparting tales of travel in china and emperor’s silk, to buying Ferragamo shoes in the her younger days. I don’t think there was anything in their crowded house that didn’t have a story. So today, I take the long view trying to make sure that every design and item I make can stand the test of time – and I always try to find the story behind every family heirloom I come across.

My Mother-In-Law – “You can make a living at this” and “There’s no such thing as Man’s Work”

My Mother-In-Law is yet another strong and independent woman who I have come to know and cherish through meeting and marrying my husband. Opinionated and tough as nails, but somehow always dressed “to the nines”, one of the biggest things I have learned from her is that being creative does not mean being a starving artist. She attended the Fashion Institue of Technology in NYC and made a living early on as a formal wear designer. Not only is she gifted in the “feminine” arts of sewing, jewelry design and painting – but she’s also been known to wield a jack-hammer and even build furniture when the need arose. There are no labels for her, she only sees what needs to be done and gets to doing it. By her example I feel re-assured that if I work hard I really can become the designer I always dreamed about. I am amazed by both her strength and ingenuity and I feel blessed that I’ve been able to learn from her and add her to the roster of amazing women in my family.

So I say to all of these wonderful women – “Thank you for ‘not knitting’ “ and making me the knitter and designer I am today.

Where are they now? – Whatever happened to your __________? Write about the fate of a past knitting project.

When I considered my past knitting projects I came upon an idea: Rather than guess at an ill-fated scarf’s final repose, or the well-loved, but now thread bare gloves, I would take a turn in a slightly different direction – a knitting makeover!

The subject of the makeover is my “Esme Cardigan” which I knit back in 2006 or so. The knitting stats, as best as I can remember, are as follows:

It is way too big (especially considering I put in a good half inch seam everywhere in my initial attempt to reduce the size overall.) Again, like My First Sweater, gauge was off, and somehow I didn’t figure it out until it was too late. This is something I am much better at now, and this is yet another example of why.

Overall it is slouchy, can’t be worn without buttoning, and gets in the way whenever I do anything other than lounge or walk. What you can’t see in a photo is the way it pulls back and off my shoulders. The sleeves are especially ridiculous, and the front edges roll like crazy. It is a non-functional sloppy cardigan.

Despite all of this I have worn it a lot over the years because the color seems to work well for my wardrobe, and it is very cozy and warm. So, it was worth my taking the time to do a little “makeover” because I loved it, even with its faults.

Tah dah! The “after” photo:

Here’s what I did:

Changed my concept – I decided to give up on the idea of it being a cardigan. The size and bell sleeves really only made sense if I mentally re-categorized it as outerwear – a nice wool coat.

Made a lining – By lining the whole thing in a yummy green corduroy, it stabilized the overall fit and gave me an extra layer to make it warmer as a coat. The lining was tacked in at key points which kept the knitting from slipping and slouching, especially around the shoulders. You can see it best here in the back view, and more importantly I can feel it when I wear it.

Added a zipper – I reinforced the front edges and added a zipper to stabilize the front and make it more practical as a coat. I wanted to stay warm even if the wind was blowing.

Shortened the sleeves – Because I had added the lining, I was able to “hem” the sleeves up and attach them to the lining on the sleeves. Yeah! I can use my hands!

Here I must sing the praises of my new favorite guide-book –The Best Little Dress, by Simon Henry. The lining was traced off the sweater, and through this book’s guidance, I was able to tweak and adjust the pattern I generated to make it truly fit. The tracing was great to start, but smooshy knitting and inexperience with drafting patterns made for a whacky, ill-fitting sleeve. I used the book to understand how a sleeve was constructed from scratch, and then I was able to correct the arm hole (which was really just a measuring issue). The sleeve block was the hardest, but the explanation in the book was wonderfully easy to follow. I was able to perfect the sleeve fit and got to a perfectly fitting set in sleeve with just enough ease. I was very proud of my first effort in pattern drafting, and I would recommend any one of Henry’s books if you have an interest in sewing and learning the art of drafting your own patterns.

So, my old cozy cardi now has a new life as a great wool coat, now all I need is a great pair of gloves and a new hat to go with it! Knit-Sew-Weave… and down the creative road we go!

So when I saw this topic on the list several weeks ago I thought – I should use this to motivate me to finally inventory and organize my stash. Well, that didn’t happen! So, today I will use this post to make public my goals and share a few smaller areas that are lovely and organized.

First, the good news: I did organize my buttons recently. I had buttons literally all over the place in boxes, bags and sewing kits in every corner of my house. I found these organizers in the bead/jewelry area of my local craft store, and they work perfectly to keep them collected together, but spread out enough to find what I need. Of course, color is the primary organizing factor, and as usual I ended up with a “warm” and a “cool” box (unplanned, but I always seem to do this).

Aren’t they pretty basking in the morning sunshine?

I am also pretty organized about my swatches. Each time I make one it gets a full label with all of the details about the yarn, gauge, washing & any swatch notes about how I worked it. I keep them all in a box, and I can rifle through them to find equivalents, colors and ideas for new projects anytime. I will need a bigger box soon, but I am happy with the system so far.

So, now for the bad news: My yarn is far, far, far from organized. I took a headcount this morning just to see what I’m up against and found that I have a total of 309 skeins, cones or balls of yarn ranging from 2500 yards to 150 yards per item ( and I didn’t count any leftovers or partials in this). I knew I had a lot of yarn around, but I really had no idea it was that much!! I think I could knit a cozy to cover my house with it 😉 . It is in several places in my home. It is jumbled into baskets, bags and boxes. I started to try to organize it by fiber, but then it got mixed up, and I didn’t have any system to organize it into other than large plastic bags (I have had trouble with moths so I keep everything in air-tight containment now). So basically, I still end up running up and down stairs and piling bags on the floor when I’m looking for something. I need a system, and I need records so I know what I have. Ravelry seems to be the logical choice for record keeping. I am hoping to find inspiration for a system by reading today’s posts!

Now, in front of the whole blog-o-sphere:

I promise to inventory, stash on ravelry, organize into bins, and then use or trade/sell/gift all of my current stash by this time next year.

I also promise not to buy anything that I won’t be using immediately for a project (this may be the trickiest part of all.) To that end, I think I’m going to put up some sort of stash busting counting tool on the blog. I hope that a similar head count next year will be under 50 items, if not less, and mostly new items with planned projects.

Skill + 1UP: Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year.

When I thought over the last year’s worth of learning I realized I had accomplished quite a few “new” things, but nothing jumped out as particularly noteworthy on its own. I began to realize the most monumental leap in my knitting life this past year was actually a conceptual and professional shift – I learned the craft of designing and writing patterns. A year ago, I made up my mind to become a hand-knitwear designer. I had been bouncing around from knitting, to weaving, to photography and back again, as career paths. When the dynamics of skill, baby care and working from home settled down, the logical choice seemed to be in knitting. As most artists find, my inspiration came from my own life’s adventure, and a special event for a very special little girl – my daughter’s first birthday.

Today, one year later, the dress pattern has been added to my ravelry store: “My First Princess Dress” is now a reality.

The pattern is named after my own childhood fancy dresses which my Granny sewed up for me every year for Christmas and were nicknamed “Princess Dress” each year. (More about that on Friday.) The pattern includes all the details for lace borders, cabled bodice and darling puff sleeves. It also includes details for a Christening Gown version, as shown below. Click here to view all the details on the ravelry pattern page.

What I am most proud of is taking the time, basically the whole year, to learn the craft of pattern writing and testing, and making the end product professional and well designed. My husband is a partner in a software development company, Droidlinx, which develops for the Android Market, and had commented recently that the Market is like the “Wild West” – full of everything from total charlatans, to the best and brightest. It can be tricky to sort out who’s who. I have noticed that this analogy works for the ravelry designer stores as well. I saw wonderful, talented designers whose fan mail for some patterns that was consistently great, and then some designers that seemed well intentioned, but the project notes were fraught with frustrated complaints and pattern pages loaded with corrections. That’s why when I started out designing, I felt I had to “do it right”. Like learning any new craft, I started with a few patterns that were less complicated, my Silk Tipped Toddler Tee for example, and then began working up to more detailed construction as in the Baby Rock ‘n’ Rollneck. I took my time, and paid attention to all the details, and was grateful for my testers’ comments and support. Along the way, I crawled the ravelry groups like crazy to see what can go wrong, and how to make it right. I studied the Craft Yarn Council’s recommendations, and made sure to delve into my own pattern collections to discover what I felt was good, bad, or ugly about the published patterns I had used. So here I am, officially a designer, and very happy about it!!

In the coming year I hope to add designing ladies sweaters and (crossing my fingers) make the leap into “official” publications such as Twist Collective, or Interweave Knits. Oh, and I want to learn to make socks. (I know, what knitter doesn’t make socks – I just never got around to it!)

Shirley Paden said, “Remember, a clothing designer is an artist”. My First Princess Dress, is my current artistic “masterpiece”. I had fun designing it, and though tough at times, I found it very rewarding to get it all organized and sized on paper. So, to celebrate this year’s accomplishments, I have decided to do a little give-away:

Comment on this post with your thoughts on “princess dresses” or pattern making, between now and Sunday night, April 3rd, at midnight (EDST), and you’ll be entered to

A Tale of Two Yarns – “Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.”

I love yarn. I think yarn is like people – “there’s someone for everyone”, it’s just a matter of finding them. I think one of the hardest things to do, however, is make the match, yarn to pattern. Like every knitter, I’ve tried some things that came together like a match made in heaven, and a few truly stunning failures via yarn choices.

Like many things in life, it was a moment of frustration that pushed me to explore something I hadn’t ever considered. I was searching for a yarn to pair with some cotton chenille in my stash that was variegated and very “fall” in feeling. I went to a sale at my LYS, and was on the hunt for a dark teal tweed. In my head it was the perfect yarn, but I tried every tweed in the store, and none of them “sung” to me like I had hoped. I grumpily decided perhaps I could consider another type of yarn. Color is the center of my universe, so I decided rather than focus on a particular type of yarn, perhaps just cruising for any color that “popped” with the chenille would lead to the right choice. I saw this plum color in the corner of the store, flat finish, very un-wooly, and yet somehow very warm looking. It was perfect with the chenille, color wise, and then I read the tag – mostly cotton. Could a cotton-wool blend be the best choice for a fall sweater? Actually, YES! Bought it, knit it, loved it.

The yarn went on to become the first “Baby Rock ‘n’ Rollneck”, which Lil’ One is still rockin’ out in 4 months later. The Sierra turned out to be one of the best yarns for children I have come across. It has just enough wool in it to be cozy, but the cotton it so nice on my Lil’ One’s skin that she’ll wear it without anything underneath. I’ve washed it numerous times, and as you can see, it still looks great and there’s no pilling! I can’t say that about any other cotton yarns I’ve used, or even alpaca and wool for that matter. It was easy to knit – crisp, clean and quick with just enough loft to make lovely even stitches every time. I happily used it again, and so did Peaceful Knitter (one of my testers), who also seemed pretty pleased with it. Our east and west coast girls seem pretty happy with their “swedrrs”, don’t you think?

I have another batch in coral that I plan on using for another baby sweater design soon, and I was really excited when I found that a pattern I loved in the Vogue Knitting, Spring/Summer 2011, called “#03 Drape Neck Top“, also called for Sierra. Yeah! I’ve been very jealous of my Lil’ One’s wardrobe so this may be an excuse to do a little selfish summer knitting for me.

This yarn is an example of why there are “bad” uses for yarns. Two characteristics that are really hard to deal with in my view , are fuzzy yarns, and variegated yarns. This yarn was both, and basically it lead to a result that argued with the knitting effort rather than show it off. This is my oriel lace scarf:

This started out to test the oriel lace pattern for the Shirley Paden Oriel Lace Blouse I’m currently knitting. I made it about 4 years ago to keep busy at Big Bro’s baseball games. I was there, it was soothing, so I just kept going – long after I’d established it wasn’t really a good choice for the blouse pattern. Well, next time I’ll stop and move on. In the picture above it is almost pass-able, but wrapped around my neck it is just a blue and purple fuzzy blob which entirely obscures all that lace work I did:

I love to knit fancy stitches, but when they are buried in the yarn choice, it really ruins it for me. As a wearer of lip gloss, I have to say the flying fiber can be quite annoying as well. Over the years I have learned that some of these yarns that look so fun in the ball become useless as a knit. I have a ton left (about 15 skeins in two colors), so I hold out hope that I’ll find this yarn’s heavenly match some day. For now, it’s neatly bagged away in the corner… waiting.

I’ll be participating in Blog Week this year for the first time! I’m very excited to read and write during this fun week of knitting and crochet blogging mania. If you’d like to join in to follow the blogs, or participate yourself, the wonderful Eskimimi is coordinating for us all, and the info is here.

Between now and then, I’m going to be catching up on my website, www.Guistinello.com, and polishing off a few projects. I did finish off the christening gown I’ve been knitting away on…

…and I’m close to finishing the lining for a little “knitting makeover” combining some newfound sewing skills with an older knitting project.

All the details, along with a pattern package give-away, will be revealed during blog week!

See you back here for Day 1, Monday, March 28th!

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All content in my blog is part of my creative and artistic efforts. Please ask before borrowing content, usually I am happy to share. In general, content, including photos, patterns and written material: Copyright 2012, Crystal Guistinello, all rights reserved. Furthermore, patterns are for personal use only and you may not edit, publish, copy or commercially exploit the patterns in any way.